We weren't expecting it but three days after Christmas we woke to about 10cm of snow that had settled overnight. The frost protection fleece I'd layed over the garlic plants, in anticipation of the sub zero temperatures, was completely burried and the cloches protecting other autumn sown crops had been flattened. 

At first I wasn't concerned, the snow was sure to melt during the day and the plants, which had been developing well (pictured above), would recover quickly enough.  But the snow didn't go. More fell and froze. For a time the garlic plants were trapped in the frosty ground under almost 15cm of frozen snow.  

It was almost a week before we could carefully lift the heavy laiden fleece and liberate the garlic plants, frost bitten, flattened and yellowing. I'm not sure whether it was the right thing to do but it was a bright sunny day and I thought they needed some light.

The collapsed cloches had provided a little protection to the onions, preventing the weight of the snow from completely flattening them.

Now I'll just have to wait and see if they recover. My third winter growing onions and garlic and every time different weather to contend with.